The second last time I saw Jack Layton was at a garden party at Stornoway in late June. Speaking under a vast white tent as desultory raindrops punished the exiled mass of smokers, he declared his and Olivia's new house, the residence of the leader of the official opposition, to be "the people's house."

Shortly afterwards I caught him on his way out and sheepishly asked for a photo. I can't say why really, I suppose I was overcome by the emotion of the moment. In seven years and something like 20 meetings and conversations, it was the first time I posed for a picture with him. I remember mumbling apologies for being so sycophantic, which he brushed off with his usual generosity of spirit.

Eleven stories on the future of the left in Canada have now run in rabble.ca's ongoing series: Reinventing democracy, reclaiming the commons: A progressive dialogue on the future of Canada.

Every Friday since May 20, stories that explore the options and possibilities have been published. The series is currently taking a hiatus for August, with our next story due to run after Labour Day on Friday, Sept. 9.

The series will run in this, rabble.ca's 10th year, and is curated by journalist Murray Dobbin.

We invite readers to take a look at what we've published so far, add comments to the bottom of each story, or participate in chat about what has been run in babble, rabble.ca's forum.

So, Rob Ford is Mayor. I've been sitting on Facebook (my social media of choice) and watching the pain, fear and sadness descend on my friends and colleagues. There is shock that this happened. How could it? What does this mean? Who did this to us? But, they hate us gay, Chinese, cycling, latte drinking intelligentsia? Should I move?

Don't move! Create solutions!

Ever the optimist, I have been thinking about what this means for us. For democracy. For electoral politics. For the Centre for Social Innovation. For the citizens of Toronto.

For those involved in social change work, these days can be frustrating ones. Just as the neoliberal order of tax cuts, deregulation, resource extraction and free trade seems to be maxed out, like the Energizer bunny it keeps coming back. Meanwhile, progressive forces (academics, unions, NGOs and political parties) can give a good fight from time to time, but overall are as fragmented as ever.

So how do we move ahead to create a movement for change that will excite people about the world that could be, and put our ruling class on the defensive? For starters, we need to better focus our energies on articulating a vision and some clear highly strategic "game changing" steps towards that vision.